kobade
arms linked in arms
around
arms around us all
link after link after link
forward and back
from home to home
to pieces of us in each other
like the eggs in th eggs in the eggs
of our great-grandmothers
in our great-grand daughters
concentrically linked to each other
“forward” and “back”
so that in our language
there are no separate words for
grandmother and grand daughter.
we’ve never been separated,
“forward” or “back”
only co-imagined pieces of each other
forced into spaces too small to contain us
“forward” or “back”-
even in the limits of our DNA:
the physical chain of kobade.
©r. l. elke June 26/21
kobade is an Anishinaabebowin (the language of the Anishinaabe people of Turtle Island) word meaning the connection of generations moving “forward and back” (ie – we do not have a different word for grand daughter or grandmother…they are the same)
This is so powerful, the meaning of the word conveyed in such a way by the poem that i knew what Kobade meant before I reached the definition of it.
Beautiful and powerful Ramona! I love the repetition of forward and back and the linking and that there is no difference between the words grandmother and granddaughter. You can feel the sacredness in the word kobade and the sacredness in this poem!